The Sapphires

A feel-good musical comedy about a quartet of Aboriginal soul sisters

In the late 1960s, four young Aboriginal women, under the haphazard tutelage of their soul-loving Irish manager (Chris O'Dowd), set sail for Vietnam to sing for the troops. Wayne Blair's film is complete piffle, an utterly predictable rom-com juiced up with some Aboriginal civil-rights history and '60s pop music, and starring wobbly actors you've never heard of. It's also, in spite of itself, one of the more enjoyable films I've seen this year. The film burbles along pleasantly, its soapy fare leavened by O'Dowd's lovable-Irish-rogue shtick, toe-tapping musical numbers and some feel-good bromides about everybody just getting along. Who knew we wanted a mash-up of Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Commitments and Good Morning, Vietnam?